Spring
by Awkward Situations Inc
Summary: AU. Because while other flowers blossom in spring, sakura flowers fall.


Sakura didn't know what she expected when she visited the meadow, but it certainly wasn't this.

"It's been a long time hasn't it, Sakura," the nymph murmurs a small, sad smile arching across her beautiful features.

"Ino," Sakura breathes quietly staring at her former best friend with wide eyes. The blonde nymph hasn't changed a single bit since Sakura last saw her, her hair is still long and lustrous, a dazzling waterfall of icy blonde hair that frames her face just perfectly and falls elegantly around her willowy frame, those dazzling blue eyes still holding their old mischievous glint and of course her graceful features that glow with eternal youth. It's such a drastic difference from Sakura's own appearance.

"Mortality suits you Sakura," Ino murmurs, there's a slightly teasing ring to her words, but none of the biting malice that Sakura's used to from her former kind, "but I daresay immortality was an even better fit."

"You can say outright that I look old," Sakura snaps, but there's no really bite to her words either. She's used to it, looking into the mirror and realizing that she will never be able to recall that beauty of the youth she had lost, resigned to the fact that her straight-backed, lithe figure is gone and all that remains is a stooped-back old crone. She's just another mortal encased in a dying shell, no matter how much she envies Ino's young appearance; she will never retrieve her own.

Ino laughs throwing her head back, the clear pure sound ringing throughout the forest and Sakura can't help, but smile too because this is Ino and even though they don't look it, they used to be best friends and even though Sakura's body is no longer the same it still remembers what is was like. A blur of centuries all blending together, days of running through the forest and picking flowers and nights of telling stories by the light of the moon, when the most exciting thing that happened to them was being chased around by satyrs and the occasional visit of a god.

"Come and lay with me, Sakura," Ino tells her, flopping onto the flowers with a mirthful giggle and slowly Sakura follows, willing her old joints to comply without causing her too much pain. Once they're both laid on the ground Ino entwines their hands, lacing their fingers in a grip that feels so foreign, yet so familiar at the same type. Without meaning to Sakura glances down at their hands and can't help, but feel just a little sad at the difference. Ino's porcelain hands are strong and smooth, the fingers long and delicate like a doll's, while her own are knobby and calloused with years of manual labor, the skin wrinkly and veined with age.

"Things have changed a lot, huh," Ino murmurs noticing Sakura's gaze. Gently the blonde haired nymph raises their hands up examining them herself, her teeth digging into her bottom lip before she lets her hands drop.

"Sixty years will do that to a mortal," Sakura whispers quietly, blinking back the tears that suddenly appear in her eyes. She will not cry over something as petty as her youth, if a million other mortals can face the certainty and chains of growing old without too much fuss, so can she.

"I know," Ino says, pulling her hand from Sakura's grip and sitting up, gently maneuvering her body to pull Sakura's head into her lap. Smiling softly Ino pulls Sakura's grey hair out of her severe bun and begins running her fingers through the the coarse locks and begins braiding wildflowers through it, her hands soothing and gentle as she pulls the hair into place. Sakura sighs remembering all the dozens of other times in the past that this has happened to her.

"We haven't done this since I was stripped of my immortality," Sakura murmurs gently, letting her eyes falls close, she feels Ino's hands freeze, her sharp intake of breath that punctuates the silence, it causes Sakura's lips to pull into a frown and one of her eyes opens to glance and that startled blonde, "don't worry I've long since come to terms with my punishment."

There's a brief, awkward pause before Sakura gently says, "Tell me about your life now."

Ino smiles brightly, grateful for an excuse to forget their earlier conversation topic, before weaving a couple more wildflowers in Sakura's wispy hair. She babbles for hours, all the little tidbits of immortal gossip she's picked up for sixty years, tells Sakura all the jokes she's heard in that time, even though she's knows most of them aren't funny because seeing Sakura smile and roll her eyes let's Ino imprint the image of her best friend in every memory, imagine her standing with her over the decades.

The more Ino talks, the wider Sakura's smile becomes, mirth dancing in her eyes. Soon laughter finally bubble forth from Sakura, bright and cheery like it used to be and Ino realizes that the more she laughs Sakura looks even more and more like her old self. Sure the physical body is still there, the old frail body of an old woman, wispy grey hair cut short and dull green eyes long since faded with memories, but under all that Ino truly sees the Sakura she knew, her beautiful pink-haired friend with brilliant green eyes and an even more dazzling smile, with enough energy and kindness to support an entire forest. It makes Ino angry that she's had to suffer so much hurt alone.

Eventually Ino gets Sakura to talk about herself and she doesn't disappoint. Sakura tells Ino hundreds of stories from a hundred different places that Ino knows she will never visit because she'll never find the courage to relinquish her own immortality. Strange isn't it, Ino muses to herself internally, Sakura took that fall for all of them, but she is also the who has experienced the most, growing old, meeting thousands of people all different from each other, heck even the fact that she's been able to see the ocean causes a soft pang of jealousy to course through Ino, yet despite all this Ino knows Sakura is the one who deserves the experiences the most.

And they talk. On and on, memory after memory and they both talk in such vivid detail that there's not a doubt in their minds that they can both picture themselves in each one. Ino tells Sakura about how Naruto is still and loud and brash as he always was and how Hinata still blushes around him that she looks as if she's been set on fire, how Choji still eats like a beast and how Shikamaru has grown out his hair and is still lazy as ever. In turn Sakura tells her of strangers that have been kind to her, the strange foods they serve across the border and about the ocean in vivid detail, the sea green hues and the briny smell that were so foreign to Sakura when she first arrived.

Neither of them spoke his name, the dark haired hero that had attained immortality not a week after Sakura had lost her own, but Ino likes to pretend that Sakura doesn't care for him despite the inquiring look in her eyes. So the topic passes and it's as if a suffocating shadow has been lifted off their conversation.

"I really missed you, Ino," Sakura murmurs, her frail arms reaching to take Ino's hands in her own, stroking them lovingly before she brings them to her chest, "I'm so glad I got to see you again."

Ino can't answer, because under her fingers she feels it the steady slowing of Sakura's heart, not into sleep, but into something much deeper, something she knows Sakura won't come back from. This is why she came, she needed to see her one more time before she lost her best friend forever, she needed to hear her laugh once more before that accursed mortal body gave up on Sakura, yet it's so difficult to let go, even now.

The sky is growing dark, golden beams of silent arching over the treetops highlighting both their features in gold and Ino feels it; feels Sakura's heart give one final pump of farewell, feels Sakura's hands squeeze her own gently before falling limp and Ino knows she is gone. Sakura doesn't feel the breeze that sends a dozen sakura blossoms that go careening through the air as a harsh breeze streaks through the meadow and she doesn't feel the tears the blonde nymph above her sheds, but in those final moments she knows she is loved and that's all Ino really cared about.

_Because while other blossoms bloom in spring sakura blossoms fall._

* * *

><p>And that a wrap!<p>

Sorry couldn't seem to get the idea to go away so I decided to post it, hope is wasn't too bad... Anyways please leave a review and tell me what you think! Just go a tiny tad easy on me this is the first thing I've ever actually posted so far, but constructive criticism greatly welcomed!


End file.
